Our vision is a future where Latin Americans and other Spanish and Portuguese speakers living in the UK have equal rights, live free from poverty and discrimination, and feel empowered to pursue their aspirations.
We offer high quality information and advice services, opportunities for development and training, and a platform to seek social and systemic change. Our work is organised across three main operational areas and a cross-cutting area:
- Advice and Casework: We provide frontline, one-to-one advice and casework in Spanish and Portuguese on key areas of need for the community, including immigration, welfare entitlements, housing and homelessness prevention.
- Education, Training and Employment: Our comprehensive programme of support in education, training and employment includes a range of activities aimed at improving our beneficiaries’ social and cultural integration in the UK.
- Children and Young People: Our family and youth projects offer dedicated ESOL classes, homework support and creative workshops for recently arrived children and young people. Parents are supported to meet their family needs and access other services through targeted advice, advocacy, referrals and learning workshops.
- Advocacy, Research, Policy mapping and Campaigning: to ensure fair and equal access to services and exercise of rights for Latin Americans and other Spanish and Portuguese speakers in London.
The Latin American community is one of the fastest growing, yet least visible, migrant communities in London.
IRMO's main beneficiary group is made of Latin American migrants who are experiencing poverty, disadvantage and exclusion in the UK and who have poor access to support, information, and job stability due to compounding factors, including the language barrier, restrictions linked to their immigration status, and structural inequalities resulting from racial, age, and gender discrimination. As a result, a large proportion face poor housing and working conditions, which, compounded with insecure immigration status and limited access to development opportunities, has a direct impact on people’s physical and mental health. The educational outcomes for children and young people growing up in this context are often impacted by these conditions.
Informed by these experiences, IRMO offers services and opportunities for personal development and employability with a holistic approach to more than 4,000 people every year. Although IRMO’s expertise lies in supporting the Latin American community, our services are open to all Spanish, Portuguese, and English speakers.
We are always on the lookout for enthusiastic, creative and proactive individuals to support Latin Americans in London to overcome challenges, to bring innovation and expertise to our services and to contribute to the multiculturality of our organisation.
Different levels of English, Spanish and Portuguese are required to support our services. We encourage anyone who is able to volunteer in the UK to get in touch regardless of their proficiency in any of the three languages.
